#4: Alinea, Chicago, IL

Grant Achatz confuses me. Or, to be more exact, his food confuses me. After eating, say, his dish "LAMB ........?????............!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (lamb served with 86 ingredients), my tongue is puzzled. It's like a Thomas Pynchon novel: Both are brilliant, frustrating, and, in the end, miraculously fulfilling. Each dish on Alinea's wildly creative tasting menu is a barrage of colors and textures. Hot Potato Cold Potato plays with taste expectations but goes down like the best cheddar-potato soup. The whole experience is a head trip, including the austere space, which I can only think was designed to keep your eyes on the plate. Do I want every restaurant to be like Alinea? No. But I do want one to push these boundaries, and I want it to be Alinea.